Furniture joint



Oct. 11, 1955 T. .1. TURNELL 2,720,252

FURNITURE JOINT Filed Oct. 5, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 W -I J- Tune-ll m rac Oct. 11, 1955 T. J. TURNELL FURNITURE JOINT 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 3, 1952 United States Patent 2,720,252 FURNITURE JOINT Thomas James Turnell, Chigwell, England, assignor to Russell & Company (Furniture) Limited, London, Engdad, -a body corporate of Great Britain Applieation ocmher a, ,1952.,.Serial No. 312,875

4 Claims. (Cl. 155-196) This invention relates to furniture and more especially to chair b nches and other s ats having f u o mo legs.

The invention has as one of ,its objects to provide an improved sturdy seat or ,Other article .of furniture which can readily be partially dismantled so as .to occupy a minimum of space for storage or transit and can be easily and uickly reassembled for use.

According to the Present invention the back and front portions or the side portions of the article are manufactured as frame-like permanent structures each having two or more legs, such structures being bridged by removable rails suitably locked in place when the article is assembled.

Preferably, in the case of a chair, the side rails are locked to the back and front portions and this may be effected by screw means and if desired also by-interengaging dovetail or like formations, and additional detachable rails or bracing :may be provided especially for the legs to enhance the rigidity of the assembled struc- IUI'Q- In a specific embodiment applied to a wooden chair the front and rear seat rails incorporate at each end a metal plate at or near the base of a rectangular socket, such plates being furnished each with a tapped hole. Alternatively the plates may be located in the upper ends of the legs. On assembly each side rail is fitted into a front and rear socket and secured in position by bolts housed longitudinally in the rail and adapted to engage the respective tapped plates. The head of each bolt is accessible from a hidden recess on the underside of the rail and/or its inner face, and such head may be square or hexagonal or it may have a peripheral series of radial apertures for engagement by means of a tommy bar, these alternative forms of bolt head being conventional and therefore not shown.

In order to resist deformation due to the occupant of the seat leaning against its back, a bracing member may be mounted say in appropriate sockets in the legs of the chair beneath each side rail. Preferably, in order to obviate the necessity for separate locking means, such bracing members slant downwardly towards the rear so as to be forced into their sockets when rearward pressure is exerted on the chair back.

The front and rear seat rails together with the side rails constitute, when assembled, a four-sided framework for the support of a detachable seat member, cushion or cushion support, not shown.

In a further embodiment also applied to the chair, the front and rear seat rails carry corresponding pairs of tapped sockets or inserts, each pair co-operating, on assembly, with a connecting bar having its ends threaded with threads of opposite hand. On assembly, a pair of side seat rails are fitted into appropriate sockets in the front and back portions of the chair, while the connecting bars are rotated to draw the two portions together, turnbuckle fashion, and secure the side rails.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the ac.- mp y ng d a ngs 1 hich; I

Fig. l is a plan view of the chair frame.

v s- 2 is a v t se ion of th chai frame taken as the line 11-11 of Fig. 1, a

Fig. 3 is a front elevation, and

g- ,4 is an plode detai v w o on o the fro leg corner joints. 7

Referring now to the drawings, a front permanent structure is a me by front legs e n ete to a rea rail 2 by m t e and tenon join s 3 3A- The correspon g ear pe ma en st uc ure is t ted y r l g 4 simi a y cu d t a e rat-1.5, h r s being e tend d up a dly at t suppe s the back of the chair. p

a e r n a ar s uctu es are qi tshebly QOQEFGIQQ y id rails 8 i p rating b lts 9v h ch en a e t si e -ing b l ap e 1. in th temps .dl 3$$1l1 in th nons v3 o t f om an rea ra th apertu es i th p t s 1 be g th ade Th plt 1 en ging the ap r es 16 som to pos tiy y lo k t e ten n .3 the mortices of the legs.

In partic lar, he s de ra s 8 ha e lshgimd ha sa ities 13 on their inner faces through which the bolts 9 n e pa pe tu es 14 in the end el -th s de rai s h oug h ch su h bol then Proj ct t enga e c r po i p tur s 5 n he perma en natu es, th lat er pe s commu i at ng th the zti es A- Wa hers 1-0 a e sho n on the bolts 9 bet een t e h ads thereof and the outer end walls of ,the cav ties 1 3 .The th ad d pla es :1 th y b s em d i the rt ens .by slue o by an th ui ab e means s9 as to rest in accurate y wit the ape tu s 51 on ssemb y, t i eng und rs od th t the men {Ce an :tensn 'id is .3A wi1 norm ly b a so se ured by shrine- In order to strengthen the frame at the front angles, wooden detachable gussets 18 are provided having dovetail ribs 17 along their upper edges to engage corresponding dovetailed grooves 19 in the undersides of the respective side rails on assembly.

Before assembly of the chair the gussets or brackets 18 are assembled to the respective front legs by means of their stub tenons 20 glued into the mortices or the back faces of the front legs 1.

As will be appreciated, the main stresses that occur in chairs, e. g. due to the occupant leaning backwards, merely tend to urge the gusset into its correct assembled position.

As an optional addition to the gussets 18, rearwardly sloping bracing members 24 may be provided detachably with their ends received between inwardly facing cavities 25 in the front and rear legs.

It will be appreciated that the four rails 2, 5, 8 provide a locating frame for an appropriate seat cushion which is not shown.

It will also be appreciated that the embodiments described may be applied without modification to a multiseat bench, to a seat having no back, or even to a table having a separate top. Moreover, many of the locking arrangements described may be applied to articles having more than two removable rails and/or more than four legs for example, a divan or bench having three pairs of legs bridged by three removable rails, while on the other hand the rails are not necessarily in the same planes as the legs.

While chairs or seats have been described that are divided transversely, and thus have front and back permanent structures, a chair or seat according to the invention may alternatively comprise a pair of permanent side structures connected by detachable transverse front and back rails.

In a modification of the invention the removable connectingrails, and it may be also, separate locking means such as the turnbuckle rod described above, may be pivotally attached to one of the permanent structures in order to prevent loss during transit and facilitate assembly.

By the present invention improved articles of furniture are provided which can be stored in a small space owing to the shallow frame-like nature of the permanent back and front or side structures employed.

What I claim is:

1. An article of furniture comprising frame-like permanent structures each including a pair of supporting legs, a transverse rail connecting the pair of legs, a mortice and tenon joint joining said rail at each end thereof to one of said legs, the mortice being in the leg and the tenon on one end portion of the rail, a metal plate in one element of the mortice and tenon joint having a tapped bolt aperture therein, and the leg having a bolt aperture therein extending transversely of and leading into the mortice in the leg from one side face of the latter, said last mentioned bolt aperture being in register with said tapped bolt aperture of the metal plate, and the tenon having a bolt aperture extending transversely thereof and located inwardly of the outer end of the tenon in register with the bolt aperture in said plate and the bolt aperture in the leg, and a pair of detachable transverse rails connecting said frame-like permanent structures, each of said detachable rails having at each end portion thereof inwardly of the outer end of the same a longitudinaly extending cavity in a side face thereof, and

through the several bolt apertures when aligned for assembly, and the cross sectional size of the cavity being sufficiently larger than the bolt head to provide for turning the bolt relative to the rail to secure the parts together, said bolt by its engagement with the aperture in the tenon service to positively lock the tenon in the mortice of the leg.

2. An article of furniture of the construction defined in claim 1 and in which the longitudinal cavities in the detachable rails are in the inner side faces of said detachable rails.

3. An article of furniture of the construction defined in claim 1 and in which the metal plate is in the tenon.

4. An article of furniture according to claim 1, the longitudinal cavity in the front end portion of each of the detachable rails being in the inner side face of the same above the bottom face thereof, and each of said detachable rails having a dovetail groove in the under surface of its forward end portion below the longitudinal cavity in said end portion, and a strengthening gusset projecting inwardly from the upper part of each of the forward legs, each of said gussets having a dovetail rib on the upper surface thereof to engage the dovetail groove in the under surface of one of said detachable rails.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 296,336 Kohn Apr. 8, 1884 515,382 Van Kirk et al May 15, 1894 893,676 Tschantz July 21, 1908 1,066,421 Russell July 1, 1913 1,519,216 Murphy Dec. 16, 1924 1,613,317 Epps Jan. 4, 1927 1,750,409 Kovac Mar. 11, 1930 FOREIGN PATENTS 255,912 Great Britain Aug. 5, 1926 398,655 Germany July 7, 1924 

